that to happen, it will be the most colossal consequential act of congressional irresponsibility in a long time, maybe ever in american history. >> reporter: focus now on the senate, which will reconvene on thursday, here in a few days. senate majority leader harry reid has the task of trying to cobble something together that could get republican support in the senate and of course, also, some republican support in the house in order for this to pass congress. the white house has gone back to s bargaining position of wanting tax rates to expire for those over $250,000 a year. it seems unlikely that republicans would sign on to something like that, making it a significant possibility, hearing from democrats and republicans, we could go over this fiscal cliff, alina. >> brianna, you talk about cobbling together a last-minute deal. the president admits there will be no grand bargain at this point. if there is something sort of cobbled together at the last minute, are you getting an indication the president would come back from hawaii early? >> reporter: i think that's the expectation.